Re-writing the River: Schiller Funds an Interactive Project—Built Largely By Students—That Explores the Complex History of the Neponset River

Though the Neponset River is a prominent local landmark—flowing past thousands of commuters every day as they cross into Boston on the train or drive in on Interstate 93—with a complicated history, few Bostonians so much as know the Neponset’s name. History Professor Conevery Valencius began noticing just how invisible the Neponset was while taking train trips on the Boston metro area subway system with her young children, some years ago. When traveling on the Red Line from their home in Quincy, she’d ask her children if they knew which river they happened to be traveling over. If they said The Charles, other riders barely blinked. Not so with, The Neponset. “People around us would nod as if to say, ‘How about that,’ like they’d just learned something,” Valencius recalls.   

But more than simply a name, the Neponset also has a rich—if complicated—history. Its watermills powered gunpowder factories—which helped to fuel the war between Native Americans and English settlers. They powered chocolate-making plants—which tied New England to the southern slave trade, by way of the ingredients (like sugar) required to make the candy. Capitalists profited from the river, but the river didn’t profit from them. On the contrary, the water became so contaminated by the various industries that grew to rely on it—including electronics and paper manufacturers—that it was declared a Superfund site in 2022. (As Valencius notes, “It’s so polluted that I could never take the kids swimming there, even though we live not far from its banks.”) Beyond that, the river’s salt marshes—and the biodiversity that thrives amid them—are now being threatened by the rising seawaters induced by climate change.

Valencius wanted Bostonians—and indeed, anyone with an Internet connection—to have the opportunity to learn more about the river, in an engaging way. To make that possible, she envisioned an interactive web site full of mini-histories of the Neponset, which a Boston College team would assemble in collaboration with the Neponset River Watershed Association (NepRWA). To support that work, the Schiller Institute awarded her two fiscal years of funding (2023-2025) by way of a Type B SI-RITEA grant—which support scholars who study applicable topics (like environmental justice, climate resilience, sustainability, and health) when they work with a US-based non-academic partner like NepRWA. As Valencius explained in her proposal, “Making the history of the lower Neponset River publicly available will call attention to this troubled but rich local resource and provide a basis for understanding climate-driven challenges to the river and the communities through which it flows.” 

By this fall, the project that she led, “Mapping the Neponset River,” will feature nearly thirty mini-histories. A number were written by Ph,D, student Laura Clerx, whose final project for her Boston College Certificate in Digital Humanities also helped to inspire Valencius to apply for the SI-RITEA grant. Though Clerx is currently finishing up a dissertation on science and commerce in early America, she will continue to serve as a map project advisor, alongside several other grad-level mentors. In recognition of what Valencius called her “cheerful input” and “insightful lectures,” as well as her leadership at the front of the classroom in general, Clerx received the Donald J. White Teaching Excellence Award last spring, following a nomination from Valencius.

The Neponset River Lab gave Clerx the opportunity to work not only with students but with community partners and environmental scientists too. “If the best way to learn is by ‘doing,’ then the Neponset River Lab offers a model for taking undergraduate learning beyond the usual class work and engaging undergraduate history students in the actual work of writing history,” she says. But beyond her peers and collaborators, Clerx hopes the map provides anyone with a connection to the Neponset River with a “starting point for engaging more deeply with their surroundings.” As she tells Schiller Now, “Our environments can shape our lives powerfully; and knowing more about how our present came to be can help us to move forward and make decisions with an informed perspective. We hope that taking time to learn about the history of our local environment and communities will help people move from an attitude of consumption to one of respect for the people and places and the many strands of history that weave together to make up our present.” 

Another outstanding student contributor started working on the map before he even started his doctoral program at Boston College. “It was a great opportunity to build some practical experience doing local historical research and outreach,” Stephen de Riel tells SchillerNow. “The Digital Humanities experience I’ve gotten from building the website has been formative for my studies, and the project has helped me see the potential impact of local history discussions.” He adds, “I found my opportunities to talk to river users and pursue their questions exceedingly valuable, and the stories I’ve produced so far have helped me realize how I want to communicate history through my work.” In addition to finding innovative ways to solve the river project team’s tech problems, de Riel also contributed mini-histories on a local lumber company’s links to deforestation and the Milton MBTA stop’s industrial past, among other topics—and he is preparing to research the trolleys of the Mattapan MBTA extension next.

A number of undergraduates also made exceptional contributions. Jennifer Gomez-Gallardo ’28, joined the Neponset River Lab as a first-year student. One of her mini-histories provided an explanation of the Neponset Superfund Site. She was subsequently awarded a prestigious Advanced Study Grant this summer to apply her Spanish-language skills to examine the reach of EPA Superfund explanation efforts. Molly Caspar ’26—who researched Native use of the Neponset and is working to connect the lab more closely with the Massachusetts community—taped soundscapes that she will help incorporate into the site this fall. Samantha Ouelette—who graduated Phi Beta Kappa in the spring—wrote a history of the USGS steam gauge, which records the amount of water flowing in the river, as well as a story about how deaths by drowning led to fencing along the river. Her experience with the Neponset River Lab helped Ouelette win a place in the Columbia Publishing Course, which in turn will help set her up for a career in her desired field of writing and publishing. The coordinator of the lab's social media effort, Cassandra Kavanagh ’27, is finalizing a history of the salt marsh sparrow—a bird in danger of going extinct—as well as a writeup about how the alewife, a type of herring, is used by Native people. Valencius adds: “All the students are terrific!”

The experience was so rewarding not only for the students but for Valencius that she developed a related undergraduate course that will be offered this spring, cross-listed as a History and Environmental Studies offering. But Valencius has already put the map to work in the classroom—last term, in the Boston College Core class that she teaches. She says, “It was exciting for me—and for some of the students, I think!—to be able to share my research about early American railways in a form that was short and accessible,” she says. 

When asked what the map might do for people who use it, even beyond the Boston College campus, Valencius reflects. “We all get invested in things we know more about: we all feel connection and a sense of ownership when we understand where things have come from,” she says. “My student team and I hope that neighbors who live near the Neponset River will gain a sense of engagement, even hope, from learning about a river that is currently threatened not only by pollution but by rapidly-rising sea levels driven by global climate change. The river is in a state of change – but as we learned working on this map, it has changed before, and people have figured out how to adapt.”